Press Archive
2013-10-31, El País, by Juan Angel Vela del Campo
Su canto fluía con calor, con una inconmensurable belleza serena y hasta confidencial. Era como si te cantasen directamente al oído. Tal vez por ello cautivó de una manera irresistible. Los fuegos de artificio dejaron en esta ocasión el protagonismo principal a los fuegos del alma.
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2013-10-29, El Mundo, by Javier Blánquez
La tarde estuvo a un pelo de ser histórica precisamente por ser histérica
Jaroussky es un cantante extraordinario, su técnica es impoluta: en directo, en una sola toma y sin red, canta igual que en su último disco – Porpora arias […]
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2013-10-18, El Cultural, by Rubén Amón
El matiz establece un paralelismo entre Farinelli y Jaroussky, precisamente porque el cantante francés sostiene que su grado de credibilidad escénica proviene de la sutilidad, del refinamiento, del trance estético con que se transforma sobre la tarima. “Creo que transmito un estado poético, incluso una cierta fragilidad. Me doy cuenta de que mi público es una mezcla de adolescentes y mujeres mayores con instinto maternal. Siento como si las mujeres que acuden a mis recitales quisieran protegerme. Tengo 35 años, es verdad, pero mi impresión es que conservo un aspecto o una actitud adolescente que provoca en los jóvenes una cierta identificación y que origina en las señoras de 50 y 60 años la sensación de querer cuidarme”.
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2013-10-17, Blue FM, by yo
ABER ES GIBT JA RELATIV WENIGE MÄNNER, DIE SO SINGEN KÖNNEN. DAS HEIßT, DASS MEZZOSPORANISTINNEN DANN DIE GLEICHEN ROLLEN ÜBERNEHMEN. WAS VERÄNDERT DAS AN DEN ROLLEN UND DER MÄNNLICHKEIT?
Erstaunlicherweise denke ich, dass Frauen manchmal mehr Männlichkeit ausdrücken könne, als Männer selbst. Denn sie müssen dann mehr Bruststimme benutzen als die Countertenöre. Denken wir an die großartigen Mezzosoprani heute, die diese wunderbaren starken Bruststimmen haben. Im Vergleich dazu sind die „zwei“ Stimmen, die ein Countertenor hat in den höheren Lagen eher etwas jugendlich, kindlich. Kastratenstimmen haben gleichermaßen eine Feinheit, aber auch eine große Ausdruckskraft gehabt. Die Mischung von Stärke und Feinheit, machte einen Kastraten auf der Bühne zu einem Jungen oder einen Mann. Hört man sich heute die Stimme von Ella Fitzgerald an, kann man Ähnliches bemerken: Wenn sie singt, dann kann sie Kind sein, Junge, Mädchen, oder erwachsene Frau oder sogar ein Mann. Und eine Frau kann dadurch so theatralisch sein.
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2013-10-16, Le Soir, by Serge Martin
Comment décririez-vous Farinelli ?
C’est d’abord un immense musicien aux ressources virtuoses diaboliques. Il s’est certes abandonné à des excès de pyrotechnie vocale. Je n’ai choisi que des airs qui, au-delà de leurs difficultés, apportaient quelque chose aux personnages. Mais j’ai aussi voulu faire sentir l’amour et le respect profond que Porpora témoignait pour son élève qu’il connaissait mieux que quiconque et pour lequel il écrivit quelques-unes de ses pages les plus poignantes.
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2013-10-09, Berliner Morgenpost, by Felix Stephan
Solche Töne kann nur einer. Töne, die zu regenbogenschillernden Kantilenen heranwachsen. Auf unerschöpflichem Atem gesungen. Wenn Philippe Jaroussky, 35, die Arie “Alto Giove” (“Großer Jupiter”) beginnt, herrscht Magie in der Philharmonie. Ist das wirklich noch ein Mensch, der da singt? Oder doch ein Kunstprodukt, das die herausragenden Eigenschaften berühmter Sänger vereinigt? Galante Anmut und jugendhafte Eleganz, makellose Virtuosität, souverän dosierte Farben. Jaroussky ist der Popstar unter den Countertenören.
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2013-10-09, pizzicato, Remy Franck’s Journal about Classical Music
Votre voix a évolué, elle a gagné en couleurs, elle est devenue plus dramatique…
Oui, et j’en suis fort content. D’ailleurs, cette évolution m’a surpris moi-même. Il y a cinq, six ans, je croyais que j’allais devenir un alto grave et puis, je me suis quand-même maintenu dans cette tessiture de mezzo-soprano, donc avec une voix relativement claire. En même temps, je me suis beaucoup calmé, avec le résultat que la voix sonne beaucoup plus présente qu’il y a quelques années. Je pense avoir eu la tendance, dans le passé, de forcer l’expression, de surarticuler, et aujourd’hui je suis convaincu que l’émotion est déjà contenue dans la richesse du son lui-même.
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2013-10-06, Die Zeit, by Manuel Brug
Die Welt: Und sind Sie als neuer Mensch zurückgekommen?
Jaroussky: Wie man so schön sagt, ich habe schon ein wenig als Sänger auf meine innere Stimme gehört. Habe ein bisschen Bilanz gezogen. Und ich weiß jetzt sicher, dass die aktuelle Porpora-CD eines meiner letzten wirklichen Virtuoso-Projekte ist. Ich habe in den vergangenen Jahren so viele verzierte Arien gesungen, ich habe fast schon ein wenig genug von all dem Vokalfeuerwerk. Obwohl es Spaß macht.
Source/Read more: [x] Disclaimer: The following is not a professional translation; no profit is being made, no infringement of copyright is intended.
Right now, Philippe Jaroussky is the world’s most famous counter-tenor. But the 35 year old Frenchman who had his great breakthrough in 1999, after just three years of singing education, already thinks one step ahead. With his enormous heights he already had his great share in the renaissance of Vivaldi’s operas, and now he goes on to use his popularity to try and call our attention to unknown aspects of the former castrato cult as well – for instance regarding the composer Nicola Antonio Propora. We had the chance to speak with him right before the start of his tour through Germany.
Die Welt: You took an eight months sabbatical. What does a counter-tenor do during this time?
Philippe Jaroussky: The same as anybody else – nearly. I traveled for four months, I went to South America, Australia – where I gave a few concert after all, because I won’t be able to return there until 2017 –, and then to New Zealand and Thailand.
Die Welt: And did you return as “a new man”?
Jaroussky: As the saying goes, as a singer I really listened to my inner voice a bit. Struck a balance in a way. And now I know for sure that my new Porpora CD is one of my last real virtuoso projects. In the last years I sang so many embellished arias that I have nearly grown a little tired of all the vocal fireworks. Although it’s a fun thing to do.
Die Welt: What’s the alternative?
Jaroussky: Bach, Handel’s oratories, sacred music. I think that now I have the maturity and the experience that are needed for the Simple, and I want to put my mark on it. Which won’t necessarily be easy. As to Handel’s oratory “Theodora”, David Daniels still echoes in my ear, who did a fucking good job as Didimus under the baton of William Christie in Glyndebourne, and who really sang like an angel. That won’t be easy to reach. And there are Purcell and Dowland on my schedule too, and I also intend to browse the works of Scarlatti, Jommelli, Paisiello, Cimarosa, Graun and Telemann a little.
Die Welt: The Gluck year is ahead, now isn’t that a godsend for counter-tenors?
Jaroussky: Of course, but in this regard I don’t have so many irons in the fire. At some stage there will surely be the Orfeo again whom I sang already but who is a little too low for me, and who was written for an alto like Bejun Mehta. But there is also a higher version for a soprano castrato that was staged in Naples, moreover with a few external insertions that nicely speak of the practice of this era where the scores were not as “holy” (meaning fixed) as today. I think I will do that. The original version will be too strenuous for me today, as my voice has mightily bloomed in the heights during the last years. A strange phenomenon, which I also noticed in my younger colleague Franco Fagioli who for a long time also seldom used his upper registers.
Die Welt: …and who also sings a few Porpora arias on his solo album that’s dedicated to the castrato Caffarelli…
Jaroussky: Why not? I too have used the castrato Farinelli’s fame for my CD in order to promote this composer who was underrated for so long.
Die Welt: Was he really a genius?
Jaroussky: At least a little. An icon of transition to the gallant style and later on to Mozart, as was Johann Christian Bach. He was one of the best teachers for singing and composition of his time. That’s already not a little, is it? In his about ten operas for Farinelli he usually included five arias for him, and they are outstanding. So one already gets 50 from which I chose eleven. Because Porpora was already quite smart in terms of economics, those are usually the only good arias in these operas. He knew exactly that the audience only listens when the stars are singing. Why waste one’s talents then? Only in his “Polifemo” that premiered in 1735 in London, and that was intended to be a strong weapon against Handel’s crew, he is good throughout. But there he had four stars at his command. And therefore I would like to fuel the small Porpora boom a little by taking part in a stage production that will take place in September 2015 as part of the Musikfest Bremen and that will tour from there. So I won’t entirely abandon virtuosity. And to be totally honest: It’s easier for me to penetrate big halls with high notes as my voice just carries better this way.
Die Welt: Do counter-tenors have to think earlier about their future after their singing career (as other kinds of singers)?
Jaroussky: Our voices seldom last until the age of sixty, as experience shows. So one really needs to have a forward-looking strategy even when one’s vocal apparatus still works completely fine. Going forward, I will use my middle range to a greater degree. And for instance I still want to make a program with art songs (Kunstliedern) of the Romantic period. In terms of music there lies an entirely different world that really pushed me forward enormously.
Die Welt: Will counter-tenors be totally normal (natural) in 20 years’ time?
Jaroussky: Never. Of course when it comes to education we are a voice category like any other. The audience has got used to our sound. And now we also have many more brave boys (than before) who already start their career as sopranists, so that today I would really have to make an effort with my former technique. But the castrato repertory really is something unusual, and the audience will always feel something special when a man can sing so high. And one really has to acknowledge that.
Die Welt: How did you tempt Cecilia Bartoli to participate in your CD?
Jaroussky: We like each other a lot, and our voices go together well, but I am shy, and for a long time I didn’t dare to ask her. And then she said “Yes” on the spot! But of course, she had also asked me regarding her Steffani project. And please don’t pass it on: In order for us to realize this project so quickly, we sang for each other for free, renouncing any rights to it. Or else our record companies would still be negotiating, and we would have lost interest long ago.
Die Welt: What will come after Porpora?
Jaroussky: A crazy project with the queer (meaning a little weird) Christina Pluhar, and before that Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with the extraordinary Julia Leshneva. That is totally pure, we really sound like two children in that.
2013-10-05, The Times, by Richard Morrison
Farinelli was the greatest 18th-century castrato. Nicola Porpora was his singing teacher and, in 50 operas, the composer who gave him the fizzingly virtuosic or meltingly lyrical arias with which he dazzled Europe. I’d be surprised if Farinelli’s voice was any more astonishing than the countertenor Philippe Jaroussky, who sings 11 of Porpora’s arias here, most previously unrecorded. The Venice Baroque Orchestra supplies zesty backing; Cecilia Bartoli, no less, is on two duets.
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Colta Russia – Philippe Jaroussky: ” For countertenors, there are no boundaries now”
2013-10-02, Филипп Жарусски (Colta Russia)m by Илья Овчинников (Ilya Ovchinnikov)
Что мне еще не понравилось — мой костюм с длинными гольфами и короткими штанами. Думаю, что выгляжу достаточно молодо, зачем же делать из меня школьника? Я не пел эту оперу прежде, кроме как в концертном исполнении, и очень давно ждал. Моей мечтой также было спеть когда-нибудь с Чечилией и Анне Софи фон Оттер, я и не думал, что все это исполнится одновременно. Странно, что спектакль не выпустили на DVD, хотя плата за это даже входила в мой гонорар.
What I still do not like – my suit with a long [“гольфами”] and a short pants. I think that I look young enough; why turn me into a school-boy? I did not sing this opera before, except in a concert performance, quite a while ago. My dream has always been to sing it with Cecilia and Anne Sofie von Otter, and I didn’t think it would become reality at the same time. It’s strange that it hasn’t been released on DVD, although the fee is even included in my fee. [“хотя плата за это даже входила в мой гонорар.”]
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Disclaimer: The following is not a professional translation; no profit is being made, no infringement of copyright is intended.